


Towards German Unity

by Jemsquash



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: F/M, historical fiction - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-26
Updated: 2015-05-31
Packaged: 2017-12-27 14:21:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/979940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jemsquash/pseuds/Jemsquash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the summer of 1848 the crown of the German Emperor was offered to the Prussian King. It was refused. But Germany is determined to become more than a pawn to the European Powers. And Prussia is more than willing to guide her.</p>
<p>Or: a kink prompt about Germany and Prussia sneaking around somehow turned into an analogy of how Germany unified. My bad</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**25 February 1803, Vienna**

_The “Principal Conclusion of the Extraordinary Imperial Delegation" was the last significant law established by the Holy Roman Empire_ _its dissolution in 1806._

 _This law was established to redistribute the territorial sovereignty within the Empire and to compensate numerous German_   _princes for territories_ _that had been annexed by France as a result of the wars of the French Revolution. Some historians argue that this was the start of German unification as the amount of German states drastically decreased as stronger territories engulfed the weaker ones._

 

Historians do not make mention of the blonde toddler that appeared shortly after and was adopted into the vast household of the Austrian Duke’s head adviser. Lord Edelstein did not think it prudent to bother humans with matters beyond their understanding.

 

 

**2 April 1849, Berlin**

 

The German Confederation slipped out of the meeting hall quietly, unable to bear the stifled silence and pained politeness any longer. In the great hall, her delegates remained: the young idealistic intellectuals facing harsh political reality in the form of the Prussian King and his council.

She moved quietly through the formal corridors of the royal palace towards the living quarters of the castle. The adolescent Confederation was so caught up in her own embarrassment and anger that she did not really notice where she was heading. She did not need to think about it. She had spent many years here as a child when the Austrian Empire and the Prussia Kingdom had passed her between them like a poor relation until her people had taken fate into their own hands and started a nationalist revolution.  
  
A successful nationalist revolution that had just offered the crown of Germany to Prussia’s King. And been turned down.  
  
Lusie did not cry as she walked towards her old sleeping quarters. She had been dissolved, sent into limbo and recreated into her present form before she had been old enough to walk without a governess. This little set back was nothing to her, really. She opened the door to her old suite of rooms and walked straight to her old bedroom. She would wash her face, calm down and be presentable when they left. The king’s rejection did not mean she would break her facade of calm.  
  
She was met with the sight of her old bedroom, which she lived in on and off for thirty years, turned into a dark and dusty storage room full of crates. That did make her shed quite a few tears.

  
.  
.  
.

  
The Prussian Kingdom seethed, having been kicked out of the meeting by his own damn king. King Friedrich’s aids had become adept at sensing when he was about to try and maul someone in front of visiting diplomats, and took steps to prevent it.  
  
He felt that an international incident should be the least of the council’s worries. Just bluntly turning down Luise’s little proposal like that, when she always took things so seriously. He should have gotten the chance to tell her gently, in private, maybe with her sitting on his lap, her pretty curves pressed against his arm while she pouted prettily and begged the most awesome Prussia to join in unholy union with her and her unplucked nationhood… Okay maybe there would have had to be a chaperon or ten there with them, for the sake of decency.

But his desire for her was completely understandable, to his eyes anyway. Most countries were androgynous. Some were pretty; others handsome, most could be both in the right clothing and lighting. Hungary and Venice were far from the first Nations to confuse others, and themselves, with their gender and they would not be the last.  
  
When she hit puberty, however, the newly christened German Confederation had proved the exception to the rule. Prussia, and probably Austria too, had thanked God nightly that Luise had been safely out of France’s clutches before her figurehad started maturing.  
  
Gilbert sometimes wondered at the world’s irony in making one of the only masculine named countries in Europe into a living vision of womanliness. Her curves had pressed enticingly against the dark blue corset she had worn in the meeting and the wide-necked gown which had displayed a large portion of her back was going to play a significant role in his dreams tonight.  
  
As he headed towards his suite (and why with every new king did his quarters get further away from the formal part of the castle?) he caught the distant sound of a door being shut. It came from the direction of Luise’s old rooms, in the next part of the wing.  
  
Gilbert did not stop to consider going in, he just went. He knew exactly who it was. Luise always withdrew to nurse her hurts in private. Unlike Gilbert, who liked to spread his hurts out on as many people and nations as possible.  
  
Stopping at the closed bedroom door he knocked. A hiccupping sound, followed by a chocking “Go away!”  
  
Gilbert entered anyway.

The German Confederation sat on a crate, her eyes blotchy and her lips bitten to suppress sobs. She started to her feet at seeing Prussia, about to yell something, only to stop as another sob escaped instead. This apparently only made her angrier as she stood with her hands clenched, her face (and a lot of her lovely neck, shoulders and chest) flushed.

Part of Prussia wanted to go up to her and hold a tissue to her nose to blow on, like he had when she had been a tiny little  _Diet_. Most of him wanted to go up to her and start kissing her wrinkled brow, then her eyes, then her cheek, then lower and lower and lower…  
  
Prussia’s foray into his id gave Luise the time she needed to regain her voice and control her anger, “I… where are all my things?”  
  
Prussia focused his gaze back onto Luise’s face, “Things?”  
  
“My possessions Prussia! This was my bedroom for 30 years but nothing in the crates is mine, it’s all yours!” Luise gestured angrily to the half open crates that had apparently been pried open with bare hands.  
  
Prussia’s voice was quiet for once, “I had them moved.”  
  
“Moved where?”  
  
“My rooms.”  
  
Luise opened her mouth but nothing came out. After a few seconds of them staring at each other, she turned away holding her arms together protectively, “Why…why would you do that?” She asked softly.  
  
Prussia answered just as softly, “Well, you know. When your king goes riding into city capitals wearing other countries colours, and announces you’re going to merge with them, you think it means something.”  
  
“Your king just told my delegates that he would never accept a crown from them without the German noble’s consent.” Luise sniffed back a tear, “But I could see the disgust in his eyes. He would never agree to be my king. Let me get my things Prussia, I am done here.”  
  
“My king is a moody, crowd pleasing idiot who needs to pick a side for once and stay on it…but he has a point.”  
  
Luise’s back snapped ramrod straight as if she had just been shot.

“Not about you being disgusting, you’re not. But… you’re young and your borders are so… messy. And your people are under the control of young idealists, not experienced politicians. The Princes of Germany will never support them.” Prussia looked at the subdued figure before him, still facing way from him. The revelation of his intentions lay awkwardly between them.

“Today your people want to join with me. Tomorrow they might want to reunite with Austria. And I can promise you, he has no intention of politely turning you down.” 

Luise shuddered at the name. “Austria is never going to let this go. He’s going to fling this… rejection at me every time I lift my eyes off the floor. ‘Oh look it’s the German Confederation who even Prussia with his expansion streak did not want!’”  
  
“If that prissy baton wielding prat,” Gilbert growled, putting his hands on Luise’s bare shoulders and turning her to face him. “Gives you so much as a sharp look you just ask him…” he stopped for a second registering the warm flesh under his palms and bright blue eyes that stared at him. “What it’s like having a lover who hates you so much you have to get Russia’s help to make her stay.”  
  
Luise swallowed shallowly and trembled under his grip.  
  
“If you and I were to merge,” Luise stared at him without blinking. “It can’t be like that.” His hands slowly slid off her shoulders to her waist. “You, all of you, your people and princes and universities all have to want it.” Luise’s chest was touching his, but her eyes were too deep and warm for him to look down. “There has to be no question of it being turned down, no peers to consult because  _our_  Emperor will be without equal.” Luise finally looked away from his gleaming gaze but Gilbert continued regardless. “And if Austria tries to stop us, you will be strong enough to shut him up yourself.”  
  
That made her smile and turn her head back to face him. And press her soft young lips against his smirking ones.

Their kiss was soft and hesitant, then soft and inquisitive, then Luise lost her focus and bit Gilbert’s bottom lip accidentally. She tried to start back but Gilbert followed her, glued to her mouth and chest and waist and hips.

Luise was still growing but already her figure was ripe and yielding. Her breasts deserved a lot of attention, but Gilbert found her curving hips which he caressed gently, just as enticing.  
  
He took a few steps back, seated himself on a crate and pulled Luise towards him, to stand between his legs. She looked nervous and began to bite her lower lip as she looked down at him. Gilbert started again by gently kissing her chin, savouring the skin on her neck and finally reaching the tops of those beautiful breasts. His hands roamed over her slowly, watching her reactions.  
  
He slowly lowered the top of her gown off her shoulders to fully reveal her breasts. Gilbert was transfixed by the sight of her flushed skin. Her rosy nipples were begging for attention and Gilbert couldn’t resist. He slowly bent his head down to lap a nipple while a hand cupped the other breast.

Luise let out a very soft moan. She didn’t resist at all, completely out of her depth and when his tongue touched her, her knees gave out. Gilbert caught her before she hit the floor.

A few sarcastic remarks flashed through his mind, but Luise looked so distraught and so ravishable that he took pity on her and kissed her while untangling his hands from her clothes.  
  
“Let me show you my room.” He said huskily in her red ear, helping her pull up her gown again, although somehow his thumb flicked her neglected nipple as he did, “You can tell me what you want to take with you.” One last squeeze to her soft bottom, “And what you want to leave behind.”

  
  
Later the Prussian Kingdom would regret his kind action and curse himself for not taking his would-be bride’s virtue right there in her childhood bedroom amidst crates and dust.

They had not reached his suite when a serving man icily informed Prussia that the German Intellectuals (said as if they were diseased rats) were leaving and wanted to know where their ward (distasteful look at her flushed face and rumpled gown) was.  
  
It was an abashed and upset German Confederation (and why should she not be upset, being so rudely rejected by that warmongering Prussia, asked the German deputies) and an angry and disappointed Kingdom of Prussia (and so he should be angry, said the king’s advisers, when a young upstart of a nation tries to cling to his coat tails and steal his hard work) that parted that day, without so much as a kiss good-bye.  
  
Prussia only had to wait until the party was out of sight before turning his anger onto the entire royal council. Luise had to wait until the party finally stopped at an inn overnight before crying herself to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the Prussian king, the German people and their respective Nations wanting the same thing, success should be a certainty. But not if Austria has anything to say on the matter.

**Part Two**

 

**29 November 1849, Erfurt**

 

The thing about a revolution is that as the personification of the nation, (or kingdom or country or whatever your bosses referred to you as) you are always on both sides of any internal conflict. Regardless of what you truly feel when the people march through the streets, you wish them well. When the king sneers and ignores them, you sneer with him. The opposing voices around and within a Nation can drive even a strong one mad.  
  
At least that was what the Swiss Confederation had told the Confederation of the Rhine while they sat together in a deserted hall, while outside the French Empire screamed at icy spectres only he could see.  
  
Restraint, that was the key, Vreni had told Luise as part of their people fought for and against their overlord. If you hold yourself back, allowing all your people’s stances and feelings to wash over, but not drown you, you could survive any amount of regime changes and restructuring.  
  
But Luise never got the hang of listening to both sides and waiting it out. What she could do however, as a very young country, was focus completely on one group of her people and ignore all else. That was how she survived the change from Confederation of the Rhine to German Confederation, focusing on her nationalists, even as the Sixth Coalition dissolved her.  
  
So she supported and believed in her people’s nationalist revolution even after the disastrous proposal to Prussia’s king. Despite the refusal and Prussia’s politics lesson she still felt she owed her loyalty to the Nationalists, who loved her rather than to the Princes of Germany, who loved power.

  
This proved to be a good move. When the contrary Frederick of Prussia decided that it would actually benefit him to take part in the revolution and started putting down uprisings and writing federal constitutions, Luise was well placed and in the right mindset to show her appreciation to the assisting Kingdom.

 

 

The soon to be named Erfurt Union whimpered and turned her neck more to the side for the Kingdom of Prussia to alternatively bite and suck. Little sparks of pain and pleasure made her legs tremble but this time she knew to keep her arms wrapped around Prussia’s neck for support.  
  
Anybody entering the sitting room they were in would have been scandalised at the sight of them, dress and jacket scattered about them as they embraced. Gilbert had just finished untying her corset and his hands went under her chemise, freeing her aching breasts from their confinement and fondling them into a new kind of ache. The corset fell to the floor ignored.  
  
Luise made a valiant attempt to reciprocate and slowly moved her hands down from Gilbert’s shoulders, along his collar bones to meet at the top button of his shirt. Her shaking hands managed to unbutton one before a particularly sharp bite on a pulse point made her turn and bury her head in Gilbert’s chest with a low moan.  
  
Sure hands moved from her breasts to the small of her back and rubbed her back comfortingly until she regained her composure. This made her very aware of the body pressed against her. The feel of him wrapped around her made the heat of her face sink lower, spreading down to gather under her petticoat and drawers. Luise began to actively press up against him, and squirmed when he pulled her back.  
  
“Wait,” Gilbert started to untie her petticoat while Luise reached up and continued undoing his shirt buttons. Her blue eyes met his red eyes squarely, pouting her kiss reddened lips.  
  
“No. Now!” She demanded.  
  
Immediately Luise regretted her sulky words as Gilbert’s smirk widened and he took a hold of her wrists, holding them still. “What did you say, my little _Reich_?” His fingers massaged her inner wrists and his breath was hot on Luise’s cheeks.

 “Still have a way with the youth I see, Prussia.” Came a haughty voice from the doorway.

Ice settled in Luise’s stomach and spread through her body. The Austrian Empire’s slow footsteps echoed across the deadly silent room as she and the Prussian Kingdom stood dishevelled, half naked and paralysed by his aura of smugness.

Finally they reacted, Gilbert releasing Luise abruptly to reach for his discarded sword and pistol. Both of which Austria had just calmly kicked out of the open door.  
  
Luise slowly sank to the floor, too numb with humiliation to do anything but hold the top of her chemise closed.

“What… are you…?” Gilbert almost stuttered, just as shaken at Luise.

“Did your parliament not send you any message? How terribly unorganised of them.” Roderich did not even try to hide his smile. “Of course it might not be their entire fault. You know how hard it is for Russia to tell the difference between messengers and soldiers.”  
  
“Russia?” Gilbert blinked.  
  
“Yes, Russia. He has been helping me tie up a few loose ends around the empire.” Dark blue eyes simmered with evil delight at Gilbert’s involuntary shudder.  
  
“I’m not part of your empire anymore!” Said Luise not wanting to get between the two greater German powers but forcing herself to speak. “The Erfurt Union ̶ ,” even as she said it, she felt the borders of her land return to their previous state.  
  
 _Across Europe in Austrian territory, watched by a smiling Russia, Prussian High Command agreed to give up its claim for the leadership of the German states. The Erfurt Union fell back to being the German Confederation. Austria had full leadership once and for all and Prussian forces were to remove themselves back to their eastern kingdom._  
  
The problem with only focusing on one part of your people is that you get so wrapped up in their emotions, beliefs and strengths that you fail to notice what the consequences of their actions have on the rest of your people. While her nationalists were happy for the Prussian king to form a federation with himself in charge, the Princes of Germany were less so inclined. They had withdrawn their aid and given no warning when Austrian and Russian forces entered the lands to restore order and threaten war.  
  
Luise withdrew from her internal examination of her land, her body and was shaken. While she and Gilbert had lost their focus, Roderich had pounced and restored another part of his empire. She looked up to see Gilbert was already dressed and picking up his jacket, not looking at a smirking Roderich. She wanted him to say something to her. He glanced down at her and threw her dress over her before giving a glare of deep loathing to the other male nation. “This isn’t over, Little Master.”  
  
He strode from the room, slamming it loudly to cover any retort Roderich could respond with. Luise stared at the closed door then slowly turned her head to her new former overlord. Roderich was giving her an open examination, unlike any a man would give a half-naked young woman. It was the gaze of an owner assessing the damage done to a returned object, like a table or cupboard. Worse, he seemed amiable to her state, as if a quick sanding and new coat of varnish would restore her to her previous condition.  
  
“I am glad to see I got here just in time.” He said calmly, with no aim to hurt or insult.  
  
Luise sat silently and hated.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Danish war is over, and Austria and Prussia have more land to argue over. Germany decides now is a good time to take a proactive step towards her goals.

**Part 3**

 

**30 October 1864, Vienna**

 

As the shock of his crippling defeat began to wear out, the aching pain of lost territory and people filled his whole being. The Kingdom of Denmark desperately looked for something to take his mind off the pain. That something was the German Confederation, who had sat silently behind the Austrian Empire during the peace treaty, her eyes darting between the floor and the Kingdom of Prussia’s back.  
  
“So. Why were you even in there?” Mathias asked, leaning casually against the wall, trying to hide how his head ached from Schleswig-Holstein’s loss.  
  
Luise looked back at the Kingdom, blinking in surprise. “You invaded my land. I declared war on you. I have to be here to sign the peace treaty.”  
  
“Prussia and Austria declared war on me, sweetie,” Denmark gave in and massaged his forehead. “Prussia and Austria fought me, and Prussia and Austria were the ones who won.” Mathias frowned at that, Prussia especially had fought at a level of proficiency no one had foreseen. Last year Prussia had been in the grips of a major internal power struggle and now he had bounced back twice as good. And rubbing it in people’s faces.  
  
“I wanted to fight! Austria wouldn’t let me go. He said I’d just get in the way.” Luise bit her lips regretting her outburst.  
  
“The way you were staring at Prussia’s ass? You probably would have just been trouble,” Chuckled Denmark unkindly. “That’s why Tino always has to be in a separate division to Sigrid when they both fight. Her bosses know she’d protect him first and follow a battle plan second.” His eyes softened for an instant, thinking back to when his family had really been his, and then his migraine brought him back to the present and Luise’s staring face. “What?”  
  
“Sweden… takes part in battles? Her bosses let her?”  
  
“Let is the wrong word. Are unable to stop her is a better way to put it.” Denmark almost smiled at the young girl’s shocked face. “Why so shocked? We Nordics have always been the toughest nations around, Sigrid wasn’t going to sit back and let me and Norge have all the fun.”  
  
Luise still stared. Mathias actually looked past her curves for the first time and realised the problem. Her hands had no gun or sword calluses, she did not have a single weapon on her and her body… It was fun to look at but soft, too soft for her to have had any exercise or military training. Mathias suspected she didn’t even have any education on the tactical side of war.  
  
“You really are just a little figure head, aren’t you?” Mathias pushed himself off the wall with a frown, suddenly very angry. “You just sit around, waiting to see which state will own you this week and doing whatever they want. And now my people are just another thing Prussia and Austria can play tug of war with.”  
  
Mathias stormed off, leaving a still Luise standing in the hallway.  


.

.  
.

  
The Danish War had been short and had ended decisively in Prussia’s (and Austria’s) favour. But it still had been an effort, especially since at the back of Gilbert’s head all the while his parliament and army officials still vied for power.  
  
Without Otto, Gilbert thought as he slowly got ready for bed, he would have been at the mercy of liberals by now. He was so exhausted that even the thought of going in search of Luise was not enough to get him out of the guest quarters.  
  
Fortunately, Luise managed to sneak into his room instead. “You look terrible.” Said Luise as he sat at the edge of his bed and thought how lovely she looked.  
  
Tiredness made him short tempered. “We can’t all recover from power struggles as quickly as you.” Immediately he was sorry he had said it. “I didn’t mean it that way.”  
  
“It’s fine.” Luise came nearer and knelt on the floor at Gilbert’s feet. “Denmark has just been telling me how useless I am anyway.”  
  
“I’ll hit him in the morning,” promised Gilbert reaching out a hand to Luise’s cheek.  
  
Luise batted it away. “But he’s right. You and Austria go out and actually fight for your sides while I just sit and wait for news.” Her fingers started to trace patterns on Gilbert’s bare legs. “You do still want to merge with me, don’t you?”  
  
“You think I got Holstein back for Austria?” Luise’s fingers stopped. “Yes, I do want to merge with you.” He said it as sincerely as he possibly could. The fingers resumed their journey up and down his thighs.

“I need to be stronger,” Luise whispered. “I want to fight by your side, like Hungary and Sweden do with their husbands.”  
  
“Actually” said Gilbert as he opened his legs just a little, to see how she would react to his unclad state beneath his nightgown, “Both those women do the serious fighting with or without help.”

Luise did not hear him. She was focused on his parted legs and the reaction she had already awoken in him. She appeared to be breathing just a little too shallowly.  
  
“Luise? …Little _Reich_?” She pulled her eyes away and looked up, flushing a deep pink. “You don’t have to stay down there. Come up onto the bed.” Gilbert reached down again to stroke her flushed cheeks.  
  
“I- I bribed Czech to keep quiet… about me going out. But she won’t keep quiet for long. I thought this would be quick.” She took a deep breath and reached for the bottom button of his nightgown and quickly undid the last five buttons, exposing him fully from waist to knees, looking away as she did. When she had finished she steeled herself, glanced down at Gilbert’s uncovered crotch and licked her dry lips. “It… it won’t get bigger than this, will it?”  
  
Gilbert almost laughed. Almost. “No little _Reich_ , that’s as big as I’ll get for now.”  
  
Luise nodded, and shuffled forward, right between his legs. She put a hand on each knee making him spread them even wider, pushing aside the loss flaps of nightgown as well. He could feel her hot breath on his cock as she leaned forward when she stopped and looked up at him.  
  
“Oh and the reason I came here was,” Gilbert cursed mentally. “I want you to keep me up to date with your government’s plans for me.” She smiled at his look of surprise. “I know you can set up a line of communication if you really wanted too.”  
  
Her hand was actually on his ball sack, a finger gently stroking. “Seems reasonable.” He said in false disinterest.  
  
“And I want your word you’ll get me military training; physical and strategic lessons.” Her other hand was on the base of his member, those fingers slowly trailing up and down the underside.  
  
“I don’t think you’re going to need much lessons in strategy” said Gilbert. He focused on Luise’s face. “You know you didn’t have to do this to get me to agree.”  
  
Luise let a happy smile break though her reserved guise. “I know that. I just thought it might be nice for you.”  
  
“I’m not telling you to stop. Just that I already agree.”  
  
“Okay.” Luise took a deep breath and leaned forward once more. Her mouth was hot, wet and hesitant on the head of his cock. Her tongue gently licked at it in little swipes feeling out the shape as she went.  
  
After a while Gilbert put out a shaky hand and took one of hers from his hips to show her how to pull back his foreskin and hold it in place. He put his hand at the back of her neck, knowing she would need more guidance as they went along.  
  
He let out a hiss as Luise started to lick his slit. Seeing his reaction she started to suck, her mouth still only around the very end of his cockhead. A drip of pre-cum made her pull back in surprise.  
  
“There’s more of it _Reich_ ,” Gilbert said tugging her forward. “Just…just try licking around it.”  
  
“But I have to be fast.” Luise frowned, using both her hands to hold his cock up to her mouth and keep the foreskin back. Gilbert braced himself not to thrust into her mouth as she engulfed as much of him as she could.  
  
  
Later he stroked her blonde hair as she coughed and chocked, wiping her face with his nightgown. He had had much better and harder orgasms before, but this one left him with a lovely light headedness and sleepiness that was just what his tired body needed. Luise was young, he would teacher her everything she needed to know, later.  
  
Gilbert gave Luise a few soft but enthusiastic kisses and opened the door for her.  
“Eighteen months.” Luise looked at him. “That’s about how long you have to wait till I come and get you.”  
  
“Or I come and find you.” Luise smiled, kissed him again then left, walking nonchalantly down the passage past a glaring Hungary.  
  
Gilbert matched Elizabeta’s glare for a moment, then slammed and locked his door, good mood gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is anyone reading this? Comments, complaints, acknowledgement would be appreciated.


	4. Interlude (or Unification, the Italian Way)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prussia needs something to distract Austria and South Italy needs help taking back Rome. With both of them after their own empires, surely they can co-operate just long enough to reach an agreement?

**December 1864, Florence**

  
“And why should I accept your help?” Asked the Kingdom of Italy sulkily, lounging back in her comfortable armchair. The Kingdom of Prussia, in a wooden, uncomfortable bench held back his frown. Independence suited Letizia no more than servitude did, in his opinion.  
  
“Because you need me to help you,” he said smoothly.  
  
Letizia’s eyes narrowed. “I am the possessor of the Italian peninsula. Garibaldi has given me everything I ever wanted in life. What could a Potato Bastard like you possibly help me with?”  
  
“Well.” Gilbert could not help it, his smirk stretched across his face. “Two very little things: Rome and the Venetian Republic.”  
  
“Chigi!” Letizia’s fist hit the desk in front of her. “Our negotiations with France will succeed, the Papal States will be defenceless and I _will_ be the sole owner of my grandfather’s legacy. What do I want with a waterlogged state and a spineless weakling?”  
  
“That’s funny. I could have sworn I heard your people yelling “Free from the Alps to the Adriatic," as I rode in.” Gilbert shrugged and made to leave. “I just thought maybe you could use a little back-up with France. And you’re right, who needs a spineless weakling in their life. Even one who owns the Venetian Arsenal. I mean, what could the owner of the Italian Peninsula possibly want with the biggest shipyards in the Mediterranean?”  
  
Letizia’s brown eyes narrowed. She sat back again considering his words. It was in moments of contemplation like this that Gilbert could clearly see how old Letizia was. She and her cousin Feliciano had aged so slowly in body that they appeared, like Luise, to only be in their late teens. But Letizia was well over a thousand years old, and as much as it clearly pained her, she had learnt when she needed to compromise her wants with her needs.  
  
“Okay, so say somehow Austria loosens his grip on his darling vassal, and I let Feliciano join my kingdom, then what? Why should I have to step aside and let him have everything I’ve worked and suffered for?”  
  
“Why would you do that?”  
  
“Because he’s the male grandchild! The one that grew out of a fucking swamp and became rich! The favourite! The one everyone prefers over me!” Millennia of pain forced its way out of Letizia’s speech.  
  
Gilbert stared at the irate kingdom and wished for Luise. She at least would want to do something other than slap the walking inferiority complex in front of him. Luise. That actually gave him an idea.  
  
The Kingdom of Prussia turned on his most winning smile. “There is on obvious solution here.” Letizia snapped her head up to look at him. Gilbert leaned forward. “Marry him.” For the first time since the Renaissance, Letizia was speechless. “Marry your cousin. Humans do it all the time; marry within the family to keep an inheritance together. What could be a more important inheritance than Italy?”  
  
 _The German Empire, that was ten times as important. A German Empire, Luise in his bed and the world at their feet._  
  
“You said it yourself. Feliciano is a pushover. Would he ever really manage to challenge you and your position?”  
  
Letizia glared, but this was her usual expression so Gilbert did not worry too much about it. “I and my bosses will think about your kind offer to help with negotiations with France’s military.” He knew a dismissal when he heard one and prepared to leave.  
  
“And for your second offer.” For a second, a venerable look passed on Letizia’s face. “I will have to think on it but…” Gilbert stopped at the door and looked at her once more.  
  
“Rome will be my heart, my capital.” said Letizia softly, focusing on something beyond Gilbert’s shoulder. “No matter what happens or what I agree to, I and I alone will hold Rome. Feliciano can have Venice or Milan or Turin or any Northern city he wants. I will have Rome and my grandfather’s legacy.”

 

The Prussian Kingdom left the Kingdom of Italy to her melancholy dreams, the sound of troop formations and beating drums echoing across his mind. Italy may unify before Germany, but only one of them was going to be the Roman Empire’s true spiritual successor.

 

Notes:

1\. Letizia is an old Italian name meaning full of happiness… Grandpa Rome named her while in a particularly optimistic mood.

2\. The agreement with France had already been reached by this time, but his soldiers were being asses about actually following the agreement and leaving Rome.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Austro-Prussain war is over, with Prussia a clear winner. But until Germany gets what she wants, he's not getting what he wants either.
> 
> Elsewhere Switzerland curses her neighbours once more.

**Part 4**

**23 August 1866, Prague**

When Luise had become the Confederation of the Rhine she had been a sobbing toddler, banished to the nursery while France presided over the treaty that gave him full control over all the bits of her that didn’t belong directly to Austria, Prussia, Denmark or Sweden.

 

 _She remembered Austria’s grip tighten on her arm as France on horseback came into view, filling the courtyard with his leaving entourage of soldiers and nobles and servants. She remembered being picked up and handed to France, the feel of his beard as he kissed her cheek and called her_ mon petit chou _. She remembered how Denmark looked away and Sweden stared at the floor, how Austria had already left and how Prussia met France’s smile with a glare that promised sweet revenge._

 

_She remembered being passed over to a governess who would escort her to Paris and a nursery similar to the one she had had in Vienna. Apart from the language, she found her new life identical to the old one._  
  


_A month later the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved and for a moment she felt stronger, more powerful and vast than she could have ever imagined. Her governess could not work out why she spent the rest of the day sobbing._

  
When the Sixth Coalition dissolved the Confederation of Rhine, Luise had been a young girl in her bedroom slipping into a coma that lasted twenty months.

 

_She remembered the feverish pain/pleasure as German fought German, the dizziness that grew stronger as each country signed for the dissolving of her, of her people’s voices growing fainter until one last voice called for “Liberation and natural growth of a Nation,” before darkness fell and she knew nothing more._

 

 _Later she learnt that she had spent most of her coma under Switzerland’s care, with Verni threatening and shooting at any Nation that tried to make off with her before the Congress of Vienna had finished and ownership of her had been made official. Verni claimed she did it only as leverage in having her neutrality guaranteed._  
  
When the German Confederation was finally set up and made official by Austria, Prussia, Russia and England; she had woken up in Austria’s house, one of his many tenants.

 

 _She remembered waking up, head stuffed with treaties and_ _agreements that she had had never agreed to, yet had to obey. Of her skin feeling too loose and her people too far away._

 

 _A decade later Prussia handed her an innocent piece of paper and she had an overwhelming urge to agree to the_ Zollverein _without reading it, just because it was the first document she had ever been asked to read and sign. The strength she got from that trade agreement grew and grew till she finally had the power to stand up for herself and leave for Frankfurt and the revolutions._  
  
When Luise had tried to become the Erfurt Union she had been in Prussia’s arms, missing the meeting where Austria and Russia reduced her back to the German Confederation.

 

 _She remembered the enticing ache, beyond what Prussia was doing to her body, as her people seemed to become clearer and stronger to her than ever before. She remembered the feeling, as if a door had slammed on her fingers, when Austria abruptly stopped both her physical and political foray._  
  
When Luise changed from the German Confederation to the North German Confederation, she was at the treaty signing next to Prussia with her own officials and politicians.  
  
She stood happily and proudly, staring straight at a battered Austria and a fuming Hungary while her southern states faded away from her but her northern states for the first time, were under her control, and hers alone.  
  
She did not faint from the overwhelming feeling until she was sure the Austrian officials were all out of sight.  
  
  
  


  
When she came to she was in a train carriage, lying on a bench across from Prussia who was looking over some documents. Looking over him she saw that the rest of the carriage was filled with crates and boxes.  
  
“Awake already, my Northern German Confederation?” said Gilbert, putting down the papers next to him.  
  
Luise said the first thing on her mind. “I’m getting quite sick of all the name changes. Which line are we on?” Trains were something that had become very dear to her heart. They were so powerful, yet so versatile. She had spent the few months of the Austro-Prussian war working with the army’s quartermasters, organising supply lines via the railways. She had almost been sorry when Austria accepted the surrender terms so quickly and she had to leave her post to join the delegation to Prague.  
  
“The Dresden line, we changed over a few hours ago.” Gilbert produced a flask from under his seat and knelt next to Luise to help her sit up and drink it. “We’re heading for Berlin. And don’t get used to the name, I think you’re pretty close to making your nickname official _Reich_.”  
  
Luise coughed in surprise, both from the strong whiskey and from Gilbert’s words. “But I thought you would be the Empire, or both of us. Not just me.”  
  
“It’s a technicality really. My people are German but your people aren’t Prussian.” Gilbert sat down next to Luise and put an arm around her shoulders. “It will mean a great deal to your people and my people know not to mind.” He kissed her ear then at her shudder proceeded to lick and nip at it till Luise nudged him away with her shoulder.  
  
“Where are we going?”  
  
“We’re headed for Berlin. I seem to remember offering to show you my room in the palace.” Gilbert pulled at her sleeve till it slipped down then began nibbling on the rest of her shoulder.  
  
“Gilbert I’ve been in a coma for days…”  
  
“Two weeks. Fast recovery. When I went from Duchy to Kingdom I was out for a month.” Wet kisses to her neck were slowly becoming sucking bites that were going to leave marks.  
  
“Can’t you wait till we get home?” Despite her words Luise bent her neck for better access and let him pull her onto his lap. Home sounded nice.  
  
“Let me think.” Gilbert stopped and looked at her. “No.” He gave her a forceful kiss which she accepted, letting him invade her mouth and twine their tongues together. Teeth clacked together as Gilbert nipped and sucked till her lips were back to his favourite kiss reddened state.

 

“Gilbert,” Luise sighed as he undid the front of her dress. “I’m dirty and sweaty. Wouldn’t this be nicer if I was clean and fresh.” A fault on the tracks bumped them back against the bench. “And stationary. Call me old fashioned but I want my first time with my husband to be in a bed.”  
  
“Fiancé,” Gilbert corrected absentmindedly, as her breasts came into his view. Her sudden steel grip on his hair forced his eyes back up to her face.  
  
“What was that?” Hissed Luise, tired, filthy and angry.  
  
“We’re not fully merged yet. My king isn’t actually your king yet.” Said Gilbert calmly, trying to pull her closer to his chest.  
  
“That’s because your king turned down my proposal seventeen years ago!” Luise almost screamed in frustration. “Why aren’t we unified? What more does your stupid king-“ Luise stopped abruptly realizing something. Gilbert let himself have one more eyeful of her breasts. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to see them for a while. “It’s that Prime Minister Bismarck isn’t it.” Luise got off of Gilbert’s lap and glared at him while buttoning her dress front. “What else does he want?”  
  
Gilbert sighed, “The southern states. All of them, save Austria.”  
  
Luise was incapable of speech for a moment, the sheer amount of nerve it took to dream of uniting with Baden or Bavaria, let alone both of them and all of the other small but rich states. “Their princes would never allow it. That’s why they stopped the Erfurt Union.”  
  
“But you said it yourself.” Gilbert took her hands in his. “That was seventeen years ago. Things have changed.” He smiled his evil smile. “I beat Austria, he’s lost Venice, he’s not all powerful anymore. Those princes are cautious, not stupid. We’re the stronger power, the better option. Otto thinks it will only take one more war to unify us all, together.” He tried to guide her back to his lap but Luise would not go.  
  
“Fine.” Luise pulled her hands from Gilbert’s and looked around for an exit. “Then I’ll see you after this one more war.” She turned and made her unsteady way to the carriage exit.  
  
Gilbert pouted to himself once she was gone and hoped Otto von Bismark could goad someone into fighting them, fast.  
  
  
 **Meanwhile…**  
  
From the small bundle of white material a soft pink hand reached out to touch the shiny object that was Switzerland’s gun. Vreni looked at the tiny nation in disgust and holstered her weapon. It was typical really. A new German nation gets created and its personification has to materialise in the only part of it that lay between Switzerland and Austria. Just what she needed: more German nations.  
  
Said personification of the Southern German States reached out towards a passing butterfly. It floated just out of reach of its waving hands, making the child giggle. Vreni was not fooled by its adorableness. Roderich used to pick wild flowers and put them in her hair, but he had turned into a land hungry empire. Just like all her other neighbours. Even little Luise’s people had been around trying to talk her German speaking citizens into rebelling. Switzerland now distrusted all nations equally.  
  
It would be days before Roderich made his limping way home and could actually sense the new nation’s presence and send someone to get it. The sensible thing to do would be to turn it in at the nearest Austrian embassy.  
  
The child’s hand got a grip on Vreni’s leg, and grinning madly used that grip to pull itself up to its feet and look up at her. The German state had the same green eyes as Switzerland and the same straw coloured hair. Then it let go of her leg and fell down. It giggled some more about that.  
  
Vreni sighed and lifted the child up on to her hip briskly. She had been on her way to the Italies wedding, free Italian food being free Italian food. She could hand the child in later when it suited her schedule.  
  
Switzerland left Liechtenstein territory without looking back.

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luise reunites with Prussia in besieged Paris, officially still just the Northern German Confederation…but what documents say and what the people believe are often two different things.

**6 August 1870, Wörth**

  
Luise was drunk on her people’s enthusiasm. For the first time in her memory, possibly any living nation’s, all of the German states were focused on one goal: defeating France. All of her present states hummed and surged through her veins, as she rode with the 3rd Army, heading towards the French Army stationed in Fröschwiller. All around her the army, made up of Prussians, Badeners, Bavarians, Saxons and her own North German Confederation people, moved together as one people towards their enemy.

Luise’s girlish laughter was ignored within the moving ranks. The last four years had taken all but the most stubborn of her fat and replaced it with firm muscle. Her hair was cut as short as any other common soldier’s and within the ranks little marked her out from the rest. She knew how to handle a sword and gun, although her area of expertise was machinery. The only reason she wasn’t advancing on Paris with the mechanics corps was because she had asked the commander to let her go with the 3rd Army. She had a feeling she should be there.

She could feel her soldiers, like phantom limbs slowly reattaching themselves. She felt bad for stealing land from the new child; Lillian, now in Austria’s care, but these were her lands first and she would fight for them. Because they were fighting for her.

**2 November 1870, Paris (the German occupied part)**

Prussia broke off his speech to drink some water and to give himself time to regain control over his temper. Prussia was Not Happy. The Franco-Prussian war was into its third month. Cavalry battles were happening along their borders, with the German side slowly gaining ground. Combat was raging all over the French empire, Italy had changed loyalties (And after all he'd done for them, he’d sent a wedding gift, a wedding gift!) and where was he? Stuck in Paris helping with the siege. And his fiancée was off gallivanting somewhere on a battlefield instead of being in the German occupied bit of Paris helping him keep moral up.

Things had been cool between them, these last two years. Luise had thrown herself into becoming Germany, darting into war meetings at the last minute and disappearing afterwards. He had hoped that the dullness of a siege would give them time to reconnect, politically if not personally.

But he was a seasoned solider and would not let personal matters get in the way of war. He resumed his talk, again explaining why high command was reluctant to bombard Paris. He had almost finished when a brisk knock came on the door. The door opened to revel a lieutenant.

“Apologies, sirs.” The man saluted smartly, his uniform revealing he was from the Saxon corps. “But the solider insisted it was urgent.”

“You interrupted this meeting for a mere solider?” One of the captains bristled. “On whose authority?”

The lieutenant blinked in confusion. His pupils were dilated and a strange scent wafted from him Prussia noted, reaching discretely for his gun. A personified nation, in times of strength, could influence their own people and control their minds for very short amounts of time. The solider was clearly being influenced by someone, and being from a state without a representative that spelt trouble.

He was taken by complete surprise when Luise emerged in the doorway, clad in a North German Confederation uniform. She had clearly just come from a quick wash, with hair still damp and skin freshly scrubbed. There was a scabbed-over cut on her cheek and a wide grin on her face. “Gilbert,” Luise threw herself into his arms. “I’m so happy to see you.”

This was very out of character for her and Gilbert assumed she was drunk. Although, the tongue she proceeded to stick down his throat did not taste of beer. He tasted blood, gunpowder and battle along with the all consuming scent of a budding empire, enticingly similar to his own scent. He could have lost himself in the smell of her, in the feeling of her wrapping around him. Luise was drunk on the sensation of her growing empire-hood.

Somehow Gilbert managed to pull himself away from Luise’s passionate embrace and looked at the men still in the room. They all avoided his eyes, as if they hadn’t been watching avidly as their kingdom got mauled by an anonymous woman in uniform.

“I was called away by the solider two minutes ago.” He said using his sternest glare, hoping against hope that this event wouldn't be spread through the barracks and into French ears by morning. “You continued the meeting without me.” Luise was still wrapped around him, nuzzling his chin with her lips. “Reich, tell your escort to leave.” She giggled and waved her hand vaguely, the Saxon solider saluting and leaving.

That was impressive, that she did not even have to verbally give her orders. And to a solider not officially her own yet.

 

Gilbert had managed to get his fiancée to his quarters without incident. Luise sprawled on his bed gesturing widely towards the ceiling, describing her actions in battle since Wörth clearly if in an uncharacteristically boisterous way. A part of Gilbert listened carefully taking note of how she had reacted in battle and how her description compared to official reports of the battle. Most of him was drinking in the sight of her on his bed her hair short but still golden, her sparkling eyes enhanced by the cut on her cheek and the damn uniform that gave away nothing of her figure.

“So we turned south and attacked France’s garrisons along the way, but then I thought I better come here and see how the siege is doing.” Luise let her arms fall back onto the bed as she lapsed into silence, frowning to herself. “How is the siege doing?”

Gilbert chuckled. “You didn’t ask on your way in?”

Luise opened her mouth to answer, then stopped a blush forming on her cheeks. “I… forgot to ask. I washed and changed into a clean uniform, and was going to get an official report when I… I got distracted.” Her blush grew in tint and Luise’s eyes avoided his face.

“Been getting distracted a lot lately, hm?” Gilbert smirked at her embarrassment. “Like your body's been pulled this way and that and your brain’s happy to go wherever it wants?” At her embarrassed nod he moved to kneel next to the bed and used one hand to tug her head up to met his eyes. “You’re going to have to work on that. We can’t have empires wondering around at the beck and call of their people, can we?”

Luise started to nod then stopped, as she grasped his meaning. “But!” She sat up quickly, almost knocking heads with Gilbert. “We’re still at war. The City States are still independent, we just happen to be united against the same enemy. As soon as France surrenders, everything will go back to how it was.” Luise’s certainty was shaken by Gilbert’s smile. “Won’t it?”

“When you’ve been around as long as me.” Gilbert took one of her hands and rubbed it comfortingly. “You’ll learn that nothing ever goes back to how it was. You are united, unofficially and now people have a chance to see how strong we can be. Humans crave strength above all else, Reich. And we’ll be stronger than they could ever imagine, together. Would you like that?” Gilbert purred, bringing her hand to his mouth to kiss.

Luise nodded shyly. Gilbert pretended not to see and turned her hand around to kiss her palm. “Would you?” He kissed each of her finger tips slowly, feeling the calluses that had formed.

Luise pulled her hand away, making Gilbert look up at her serious face. “Yes, Gilbert.” She said softly, meeting his gaze. “I would like that very much.” She leaned forward and kissed him, letting her scent swamp over him once more. A very familiar mouth and tongue met his own firmly, without hesitation. When Luise pulled herself back, Gilbert followed, remaining locked in their kiss. When her head met the pillow of his bed, he was on top of her, already unbuttoning her shirt.

 

For the first time in weeks Luise was in a proper bed, not a soldier’s bunk or on the move with just a makeshift pillow. And all she could focus on was the hard body on top of her, pressing against her firmly, making her want to squirm away and press forward. But she was no longer a little confederation, afraid of her own emotions. So when Gilbert’s hips ground against hers, she responded.

She was still inexperienced, still fumbled with buttons and still whimpered in ways that made Gilbert chuckle darkly. She still blushed madly when Gilbert pulled back to stare at her bared torso, now toned with muscle on the stomach. But that wasn’t the change that Gilbert focused on.

“They’re smaller.” Gilbert frowned, cupping one breast in each hand. Luise actually managed to glare.

“They are not!” She squeaked as both of her areolas were brushed with his thumbs, hardening her nipples even further.

“The nipples are bigger, darker.” He leaned forward and looked closely. “But the rest of them are definitely smaller.

Luise hissed. “My shoulders have gotten broader and my muscles are stronger. They’re just further apart and firmer.” She had actually been happy that her breasts didn’t command so much attention anymore.

Gilbert let go of her breasts and sat up, still resting on his knees on either side of her legs. “No, they’re definitely smaller.” He said squinting down at them. “You need to eat more. Maybe they’ll get bigger again.”

With another hiss of anger Luise sat up and sucked at one of Gilbert’s own nipples, deliberately biting it the way Gilbert had done to her own on occasion.

Gilbert let out a squawk that was more in pleasure than pain and lost his balance slightly. Luise took the opportunity to turn to the side and tug till she was above him instead. She glared down at her smirking bedmate, who was still focused on her breasts, now set over his head. “My breasts are perfect.” She said stiffly.

“Now that I look at them from this angle.” Gilbert smiled. “Yeah, they’re awesome.” Gilbert’s smile turned into a smirk his red eyes darkening. “What are you going to do now, Reich ?”

All of Luise’s smugness vanished as she realized what position she was in, balanced over Gilbert on her forearms unsteadily. With an even eviler smirk Gilbert took her left nipple into his mouth. Luise cursed as her arms, supporting her upper body trembled in time with the licks. Gilbert loosened his lips, letting the nipple slid out before turning to the other and nipping it firmly. Then he began to suckle in earnest.

Luise managed to keep her balance on her forearms, despite a familiar wetness beginning to grow between her legs. It wasn’t until Gilbert brought his hands into play, rubbing softly then squeezing lightly at her other breast that she sank down on to his chest with a moan.

Gilbert gave up on her breasts, pulling her head up for a kiss, his arms going around her neck. Their tongues again pressed against one another, sliding over lips and teeth.

Gilbert’s arms moved from her neck to slide down slowly, brushing over heated skin until meeting her clothed hips. Luise did not pull back as his hands slid between them to undo her belt. She shut her eyes and kept kissing as her trouser buttons were undone and slowly pulled down, along with her underwear.

When two hands moved up to rub against her bared cheeks, fingernails lightly grazing soft skin, only then did she pull away to bury her head in the pillow.

“These are still the same.” Gilbert said, squeezing her cheeks together then letting go. “Move over, Reich.”

Slowly, head still buried in the pillow Luise squirmed off of Gilbert, letting him sit up and stand. She turned her head to face him, eyes closed but peeking through her eyelashes. Slowly Gilbert took his unbuttoned shirt off completely, then sat on the edge of the bed and took off his boots and socks. Then his pants, then his underwear. Only his iron cross remained, stark against the bareness of his pale chest. He moved to the foot of the bed, Luise still watching him under her eyelashes.

You’re being ridiculous, she told herself, as Gilbert began unlacing her own boots. You’ve been moving towards this for over two decades. You’ve almost done this countless times. Slowly, holding her foot gently, Gilbert pulled one sock off, rubbing her ankle as it was exposed. But that was when we had to rush, when there was no other time for it. We don't have to do this now. We could wait.

Her other sock was pulled off slowly. Her face was on fire, her legs trembled, her stomach was a knot of tension. And she was wet and wanting. So when her pants were tugged she raised her legs to help Gilbert pull them off faster.

And then, when she was just as naked as him, she rolled over on to her back, looked him in the eye and raised a hand for him to take. He climbed onto the bed, over her once again, took her hand in his and settled over her, skin to skin.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When a new Empire is built many are affected. While one Nation fights for her life another pays Germany a visit. She has warnings and marital advice to impart. And Luise has decisions of her own to make.

**15 January 1871, Vienna**

  
In Vienna, the child Switzerland had unceremoniously delivered into Austria’s care whimpered, still deep in a coma. She lay on a bed, a sheet covering her feverish body.

Hungary replaced a wet cloth on her forehead with a cooler one, brushing back blonde hair and knowing it was useless. The child’s land was shrinking and reshaping as more and more, the people of her states began to respond to the idea of a Germany. And the avatar of such a nation was not her.

“No change?” Austria asked from the doorway. He looks just as weary as Hungary felt, the mess in Spain and war in France affecting him just as much as his charge’s three month long coma.

“No change.” Hungary moved the basin of cold water to the floor and stood to face her husband. Husband. Even in the midst of all the trials and confusion that fact that she had finally married her dear Roderich, that their people finally acknowledged their love, their equality, made her heart beat a bit faster.

“You are needed in the next set of meetings in Bohemia.”

“I can’t just leave her.”

“Your being here or not, makes no difference to her.” Austria said quietly. At his wife’s cold look he elaborated. “If we work hard, meet with the Bavarian government, convince them not to go along with this lunacy. That will help the child more than any amount of nursing.”

Hungary sighed, kissed the child’s hot check and left with her husband.

After awhile, when the face cloth on the child’s forehead became too warm to be of any use, a hand reached out and took it, wetting it again in the basin left behind. The blonde woman smiled down at the struggling child, gently wiping sticky arms and dry lips. “That’s right, moja droga. You keep fighting.”

A cupped handful of water was carefully poured into the child’s mouth. And slowly it was swallowed. “There we go. Just cause they expect us to give in and die, is no reason to, huh?”

There was no response. But then, Poland did not expect one.

 

 **17 January 1871, Versailles**  
The war was won, and the siege ended. France had surrendered soon after heavy bombardment started. The armistice meant train-loads of food were sent into starved Paris and Prussian forces withdrew to the east of the city.

The Prussian Army was having a victory parade at the moment, which gave Germany some time to herself. Tomorrow people would meet and sign forms and declare things that had already happened. Tomorrow the German Emperor would be proclaimed.

Germany sighed to herself and sank deeper into the bath. That was actually the whole reason for her worries. A beautiful dress, picked out for her by the soon to be Emperor’s daughter-in-law, had been delivered to her rooms in Versailles. It was a lovely thing of red, black and white and Princess Victoria must have gone to great lengths to get a dress made that would look good on her and have the colours of her Empire on it.

But her Empire had been formed in battle and blood, not alliances and marriages between nobles. There would be no wedding for her and she had been happy to attend the ceremony in her dress uniform, like Prussia would. If she showed up at the ceremony dressed as a noble women that image of her would stay in her leaders’ mind, not the one that she had carefully cultivated of her as a soldier, as a fighter.

She suspected the only thought Prussia would have on the subject was that dresses would make life easier when he pulled her into deserted rooms and had his wicked way with her. He was a soldier, had always been a solider since he exchanged his medic bag for a sword and rewrote his fate in blood and armies. He was always going to be the fighter of the pair. The question was what Germany needed to be.

Luise thought about Hungary and Sweden who were warriors through and through, Belgium who used diplomacy and trade to fight for her tiny part of Europe. And Switzerland who had stood up and declared that she would not play the European war game anymore, that she would not be made to bend and yield to anyone on any terms but her own.

Luise did not think of how Sweden had been overlord to Finland first then his wife, that he had never had had any choice in the matter of his marriage. She did not think of how Hungary had rebelled again and again against Austria, how their new marriage was officially called a Compromise. That Switzerland had never had anything worth invading for and even now everyone assumed she would soon fall and fade away into her stronger neighbour’s land. And as she was a young Empire wrapped up in her own interests, she did not think of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands being torn apart by outside powers, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland being held together by England’s heel on his brothers’ throats, of the Iberian Union, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and how marriage between nations always, always ended badly.

“You’re gonna get all pruney and stuff, if you stay in there any longer.”

Water sloshed all over an expensive floor as Luise jerked in her bath, turning towards the unfamiliar voice. It came from a blond woman, dressed in a worn but well kept dress, sitting in a chair comfortably, as if she belonged there.

“Who-? How did you get in here?” Luise glanced at the still locked door then back at the woman, cursing herself for not having her gun near her. There was something not right about her uninvited guest.

“Oh you know,” the woman waved a hand negligently, “Caught a train from Vienna, got out at the Versailles station, walked to the palace, asked for directions to your rooms.” She got up to closer examine a gilded mirror on a far wall while Luise scrambled for her dressing robe, pulling out the gun under it.

“Halt! Put your hands where I can see them and remain still!” She took careful aim with one hand, holding the robe to her front but not bothering to put it on.

“Wow, you are, like, Prussia’s dream girl, aren’t you?” Smiled the intruder turning to face her. “All guns and no frills.” She tilted her head, braid hanging. “I wonder, are you like this cause you’re like this. Or are you like this cause Prussia likes it?”

Germany felt confusion, more than anything else and did not raise her gun away from the (nation? She did not feel like a nation, but she did not feel like a human either) intruder.

“You have no idea who I am, do you?”

“I’m sorry.” Luise said, realizing the foolishness of apologizing to a woman who invaded her bath and privacy, “Have we met?”

“Once, during the Uprisings of 1848.” The woman smiled tightly. “You were starting up and I was being pushed down. My delegates tried to get yours to work together with them against Prussia, but they refused. Now I see why.” Luise did not like the way her green eyes focused on the bite mark on her hip, and tried to move the robe to cover it, while still keeping her gun aimed at the woman.

“There were a lot of uprisings in 1848.” She said calmly as her wet fingers fumbled with the lock of her gun.

“But how many by a country that kinda doesn’t exist at the moment?” Poland smiled again, this one just as fake as her last. “Put down that gun and put on something if it bothers you so much. I’m just a tenant come to pay her respects to the new lady of the house.”

A few minutes later, mostly dry and back in her uniform with her gun close at hand, Luise awkwardly offered Felicja some tea. “Sure, why not. First time in ages one of my landlords has treated me like a guest and not an invader.”

“Do you often show up when they’re in the bath?” Luise couldn’t stop herself from asking.

“Oh my God!” Felicja suddenly laughed, “Can you imagine Russia’s face if I did? He’d die. Of course,” She stopped laughing abruptly. “I’d die too. And Hungary would not be happy if I bothered Austria.” She gave Luise a wicked look, her mood changing rapidly again. “I don’t suppose I could…”

“No.” said Luise firmly, pretending the image of Prussia in the bath was not flashing through her mind. “Definitely not.”

Felicja pouted, all signs of her good mood gone. “Are you gonna be like Hungary and swing from lovey-dovey to pissed and revolting all the time? Cause she’s fun when she’s fighting but when she’s not…” Felicja stared at her tea cup, seeing something else.

They sat in silence. Luise tried to think of something, anything to say.

Fortunately Poland bounced back after a while, munching happily on the biscuits. Luise wondered if it was the partitions that made her so moody. Was she swinging from one group of people to another, mentally? Her accent occasionally changed, but she continued to speak Polish throughout.

“So you’re gonna get married tomorrow, right? Be the Prussian Empire’s most favoured vassal and all that stuff.”

“German Empire.” Luise corrected her. “And that will be my title, not his. We will be equals.”

“Oh, moja droga, you have no idea how many nations have said that and then changed their minds. Why me and Liet-” Felicja stopped abruptly, going back to starring at her tea. “Me and Liet said that too.”

More awkward silence. Luise had met Lithuania at least, a very sweet young woman who had made Luise feel safe and relaxed despite Gilbert and Ivan next to them, exchanging barbed complements.

“Hey!” said Felicja looking up. “If you’re the German Empire, then you’re the one killing Southern Germany. Knock it off already.”

“It was my land first!” Germany’s exclamation escaped from her mouth before she could stop it. She was shocked, Poland was not.

“I say that all the time and nobody cares.” Felicja finished off her tea with a big gulp and poured herself some more. “Can’t you just let her keep a tiny bit nobody wants? I hear Bavaria is putting up a fight, let her have that.”

Luise stared at her, wondering if the former nation was completely sane. “Even if I could do that.” She said carefully. “What kind of message would I be sending to the rest of Europe, just giving away a very strong province? It’s taken so long to get this far, I cannot turn back now.” Unspoken was the fact that she did not want to relinquish her hold on any of her land, that it was already hers, was always going to be hers.

“If you’re worried about what Gilbert will say, I can show you a trick I used all the time back when I was a Kingdom and he was my bitch.”

Luise’s mind, focused on diplomatic strategies, polite conversation and the next day, came to a screeching halt, not unlike that of a train. She tried to make a questioning sound but failed.

Unfortunately Felicja was oblivious “What you do, is suck his left lobe, not his right, for a while till it’s really sensitive. Then you take a pike, the knife not the fish, and it has to be clean, otherwise he complains…”

“Wait no, its fine, really.” Luise finally managed to say.

“Yeah, his left, not the right, he lost the whole ear in the crusades and it didn’t grow back right.” Felicja said in bored tones. “Although maybe it’s finally healed completely, try it and let me know. Any way a pike or any kind of small knife really…”

“I really don’t need to hear this.”

“Hhmm?” Felicja finally noticed her blushing face. “You need to get over that shyness quickly and learn, moja droga. Prussia’s been around for seven centuries and he was only celibate for the first three…” Felicja gazed off into the distance for a moment with a smirk, and Luise had a horrible suspicion that Poland knew from personal experience exactly when her husband’s monastery vows officially ended.

Felicja came back from her happy recollections of being a conquering kingdom to continue her story. “So yeah, you sneak up behind him with the knife and-“

“Should I wear a dress to the Emperor’s proclamation or not?” blurted out Luise, a question that had been floating in her thoughts for a while and conveniently dragged out for sacrifice.

Poland thankfully, stopped her instructions to consider the question. “Isn’t there going to be a wedding beforehand?”

“No, just Prussia’s King becoming our Emperor.” Luise let a small smile slip, despite herself. Our Emperor.

“That’s lame.” Poland considered the empty tea pot and cups. What little in the way of food had been eaten, mainly by her. “What about a ball or dance?”

“There will be a ball that evening.” Luise recalled, though she had not planned to attend the diplomatic event. The work was done, the empire made and staying in with Prussia sounded like much more fun.

“So go to the military thing, see I know its military cause Prussia’s involved, in uniform and the ball in a dress. They’re funnier to dance in.” Poland frowned, her mind on something else. “Wasn’t I telling you to do something?”

“You did.” Luise got to her feet, the sound of the Prussian army being dismissed for the night echoing across the city and her neck. Gilbert would be back soon. “I will think on what you said.” She lied.

“That’s all I ask, moja droga.” Poland stood and followed Luise to the door. Just before she exited she turned and looked Luise in the eye. Her green eyes were the clearest and most focused they had been the entire meeting “Hey, remember almost 70 years ago, when you were a little child with no voice and no power, at the mercy of every nation you met?”

“Yes?” said Luise, hoping for a grain of wisdom from the much older former nation.

“Just remember it.” Said Poland. “It’s easy to forget, until you have to go through it all over again.

Poland left Luise’s suit of rooms on her own. Luise was far more interested in Gilbert’s return than Felicja’s leaving.

 

Much later, in bed, she mentioned going to the Proclamation in uniform and the ball in a dress. As she had suspected Gilbert had no opinion on her attire, however he had always planned to go to the ball with her. Diplomatic talks are never finished, he assured her, now that they had an Empire, they had to keep it running. And speaking of things that were never finished…

Luise grinned to herself as Gilbert pulled her back into his embrace and put the rest of Poland’s advice out of her head. What did she know anyway.

 

 **18 January 1871, Versailles**  
Checking her uniform for the last time in a passage mirror, Luise adjusted the iron cross around her neck. She had been awarded it recently and was still unused to its weight. It would take her time to be as used to it as Gilbert was of his much older one.

She turned into a passage way and found Prussia talking to a much worn and tired looking France. She inched closer to them awkwardly, to behind Prussia as their conversation ended. Deep in her heart France would always be the French Empire, the first to capture her, but the first to give her a name and boundaries.

France flicked his bruised eyes over Germany in a dismissive motion already turning to leave. He stopped and turned back as something registered to his brain. “Well, well…” he smiled pulling out a wilted rose from somewhere. “It looks like someone couldn’t hold his fire till his sergeant gave permission, oui?”

Germany didn’t immediately get his meaning but seeing Prussia glare at him helped her with the context.

“Mind your own damn business, friend.” Prussia’s voice took on the tone he used in battle.

“But it is my business, when innocent virgin countries are debauched in my capital city.” France gave her a leer she had seen on his face many, many times but never directed at her. “And I’m not the one doing it. I was going to tell you a few secrets about your fiancée’s tastes. But I see you’ve already experienced a few of them already.” France raised his rose to her burning cheeks, brushing it’s petals against them. “Tell me, does he still like to… eat afterwards?”

It was France’s words and the memory of Poland’s smirk and Prussia’s worried glare that made her snatch the rose from her face and scrunch it into her fist. She shoved the fist towards France hugely gratified to see him flinching from it. All she did however was open her hand and let the remains of the rose fall to the richly carpeted floor.

“I’m getting sick of other Nations pressing their noses into subjects that do not concern them.” Her voice was flat but harsh. “I am a grown Empire and fully aware of my husband’s past.” She narrowed her eyes. “And all I care about is our future. Good bye, France.” She turned on her heel toward the chamber of mirrors, not looking back.

Prussia caught up with her shortly. “Reich- Germany.” She stopped just before the door and looked at him. She was now the same height as him, she noted absentmindedly.

“I-” Prussia moved closer to her and fixed the shoulder ornaments of her uniform. “That was awesome.” He avoided her eyes.

Luise had learnt a lot over the past fifty years of living a life tangled with Gilbert. She knew that this was as close to a declaration of love and faithfulness as she was ever going to get. She’d take it.

Not holding hands, but walking side by side the two nations entered the hall together where their government and Emperor waited.

 

Forgotten in the hallway France pulled out a flask and took a slug inelegantly. He passed it to the Nation standing next to him. “This won’t end well.”

“No duh.” Poland sniffed the flask, pulled a face and made a quick toast anyway.

“To German Unity.”

 

**20 January 1871, Vienna**

  
While the German Empire had officially been proclaimed, a few states still scrambled for a way to politely decline becoming a part of it without inviting the Prussian Army to visit and talk them around.

  
One prince sent a polite letter to the chancellor reminding him of his state’s neutrality. Said state was so small the chancellor’s aid had to look it up on the map. It was decided that the Great German Empire would somehow manage without Liechtenstein and her army of 80 men for now. Its noble family owned much more land in Bohemia and Czechia and surely they would eventually sell their tiny German speaking piece in exchange for favours and power.

  
In her room in Vienna, Liechtenstein opened her eyes and smiled to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes:
> 
> 1\. Poland was partitioned into three bits at this period of time and technically didn’t exist on a map. However her people still considered themselves Polish and regularly raised merry hell. The phase she keeps saying, moja droga, means my dear girl.
> 
> 2\. The are many ways of explaining Liechtenstein. One could argue that she has been around since the Holy Rome Empire’s days and is over 800 years old in her first cannon appearance. But then she would have had to live through an epic amount of turmoil and suffering and I just couldn't do that to her. 
> 
>  
> 
> Fuck it. I'm loading the whole damn thing on here this week.


	8. Interlude II: When Luise Met Feliciano

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The year is 1917, the world is still at war and two Nations are about to meet for the very first time. Their respective spouses are not going to be happy at the friendship that will eventually form between them.
> 
> I've written this chapter to match the English dubbed series, thus it's a bit weird. Or normal, depending on how you look at it.

 

**The** **Battle of Caporetto,** **19 November 1917**

 

It was hard to tell who had been less happy when Austro-Hungary asked for the German Empire’s aid, the German Empire herself or her officials. Having to move into the Italian front was a drain on resources.

 

Britain was slowly gaining ground in the Western Front, the Eastern Front was a mess and the Allied blockade had started to cause Luise hunger pangs. The German Empire had not seen her husband in over half a year and hadn’t heard from him in months.

 

_War_ , thought Luise glumly, _lost it’s glamour after the first four years._

 

The battle at Caporetto had been an easy enough, compared to the ones she had been fighting in the west front. Their ambush couldn’t have been better planned and the Italians more disorganised. She had left her storm troopers to deal with the last of the retreating Italian forces. She was after a more important target.

 

Luise had never actually met the Republic of Venice or Northern Italy as he was calling himself these days. They had both been under Austria’s control at the same time, but she had been a very young child then and Northern Italy had been an almost grown man for centuries and a favoured state for longer. Their paths had never crossed, until now.

 

Luise had been conflicted about bringing her weapons with her, when she should only have to locate the fellow nation and see to his arrest and capture. Her men had captured so many of his men, surely the rules that governed their kind meant he would come quietly, without a struggle. Eventually she had decided on a few hidden weapons and, feeling a bit silly, a big stick. It was a battle site and she was not going out without a weapon in her hands. If the Nation was offended that she had brought an obvious weapon, she could pretend it as a walking stick or something.

 

Strangely the few Italians that she encountered fled even faster at the sight of it. Clearly there were facts that she was not aware of. This Northern Italy was a descendent of the great Roman Empire, was he not? He could be waiting to spring a trap on her over the next hill..

 

How the tomato box fitted into the plan, she wasn’t yet sure.

 

The German Empire stared at the box then cautiously pocked it with her stick. “H- hey there! I’m the spirit of this Tomato box. I want to be your friend!” Came a voice in Italian.

 

_What on earth?_ Luise stared at the box for a second. “There’s a person inside it.” _Could it be?_

 

“There’s no one in here! Don’t open it!” Luise was already on her knees, feeling around the box for any wires or traps. It was probably safe, since they didn’t want her to open in, but it never hurt to be safe.

 

“Cut it out! You trying to see my guts or something?” The box lid was heavy, as if someone was trying to hold it down from the inside.

 

“Show your true self!” The lid finally opened, and out burst a trembling figure, dressed in the uniform of the Italian army and…crying.

 

“I’m sorry! I‘m sorry! I’m not a tomato box sprit!” The man pressed his hands together as he pleaded. “Please forgive me enough not to shoot! I’ll do anything, think of my poor wife left alone with 16 provinces to feed!” _Provinces? So he_ was _a Nation._

 

“I’m so sorry. I have relatives in Bayern!” Maybe she just misheard him; the dialect he was using was hard to follow. This can’t be the Nation that had given Austria and Hungary so much trouble.

 

“I wanted to spend my last moments eating delicious pastaaa~~.” One long curl bounced in time with his wailing.

 

“I have a question,” cut in Luise as he paused to take in a breath. “Are you my enemy, the descendent of Rome?”

 

“Oh.” The tears thankfully stopped. “You know Grandpa Rome? I’m North Italy, Grandpa’s descendent. But my wife South Italy got Rome in the pre-nup! I don’t mind, they don’t make good pasta there!”

 

_Is this incompetent man really…_ Luise stared at the babbling solider.

 

“Hey, you’re a girl! You should have said something sooner I thought you were a scary guy or something!”

 

_No one can be this useless, this must be a trap! First he acts like this to make me drop my guard then he goes on the offensive!  
_

“Here let me greet you properly, I’m Feliciano Vargas and you must be,” moving quickly to take her hand proved to be his undoing, “Lady Germany, I hope we can be frie-” the stick hit him squarely at the back of his head, knocking him out cold.

 

_Anyone asks,_ decided Luise as she got ready to carry him back to camp, _he resisted capture._

 

 

 

 

_Husband,_

 

_I have captured Northern Italy, but all he seems to do is sleep, eat and sing. With him here I am unable to return to the Western Front and help with Belgium and England._

_He doesn’t seem to be planning to escape, or trying to spy or sabotage us. He’s also wasting resources with his ridiculous demands for Italian food._

 

~~_I miss you_ ~~

 

_Luise_

 

The German Empire looked up from her letter to the slumbering prisoner. There wasn’t even a cell available for the Nation with so many of his people captured. They had to make do with one small barrack at the back of the German Camp. And they only got that to themselves by virtue of their Nation status.

 

So far Luise had been patient with her prisoner. She gave him extra rations out of her own meals (her hunger at this point had just become a continual ache that was easier to ignore than feed) and removed any spiders that looked at him threateningly. She had even instituted a work out routine for him to make sure he got enough air and exercise. And if that routine included long runs out that let him out of her sight and with a clear view of a path to freedom…he hadn’t noticed it.

 

Clearly she would have to be less subtle. “So.” She smiled at Feliciano. “How’s the escape plan working out?”

 

Feliciano smiled back at her then went back to polishing his wedding ring. “Why would I escape? Here I get fed, have a safe shelter and don’t have to fight.”

 

“Well,” Luise felt her smile crack just a bit. “It is the duty of every man and Nation to try and escape, no matter what their circumstances and nationality. Won’t your people be devastated without you?”

 

“No, my wife will keep them motivated.” He slipped his ring back on and admired it shining in the sun. Unwillingly Luise glanced at her own ring less finger. She and Gilbert had never gotten rings made. It niggled at her for reasons she couldn’t explain.

 

Sighing Luise got to her feet, time for really unsubtle attempts. “I’m going out. For a very long time. And leaving this back door, which leads right to the end of the camp and start of the dense forest, open. Good bye, Northern Italy.”

 

“Good bye Mrs. Germany, have a nice walk.”

 

Luise hid behind a wall and watched as Feliciano walked slowly out the barracks towards the boundary line. It looked like he was headed straight for the forest when he stopped at the communication centre, picked up the outside telephone and dialled a number.

 

Every military instinct she had told Luise to prevent her prisoner from contacting the outside and giving dangerous Intel to her enemies, especially when she could not hear the conversation. But every other instinct that was primed for the preservation of her sanity made her wait and see what happened.

 

Judging from the look of bliss on Feliciano’s face as he started speaking, he had been put through to the right person. What followed was half hour of him talking at length, occasionally stopping and listening while playing with the cord.

 

_How long does it take to arrange a rescue?_ Wondered Luise, still hidden. Finally Feliciano cheerfully put the phone down and slowly walked…back to the hut. Luise waited three more hours before accepting that that was it and no escape plan had been put into motion.

 

 

 

It was the singing that got her in the end.

 

The German Empire backed out of the hut slowly, afraid that the lyrics would follow her. “You! Solider!” she pointed at a random private that happened to be walking past.

 

“Ma’am?”

 

“Go find me a crate.” _Maybe a tomato one for extra irony._ “And stamps… lots of stamps.” The solider backed away from his evilly smiling Nation.

 

 

 

**Some time later, Rome**

 

Letizia looked up from her stack of war reports. It was a war, damn it, why so much paperwork? “What is it? Can’t you see I’m busy?”

 

Her soldiers were used to her temper. “Ma’am, this parcel was addressed to you. But it seems very suspicious.” The box rocked slightly as a voice drifted from it. “Letizia, my love, I’m so happy to hear your voice again!”

 

Letizia sighed and covered her face, hiding her relieved smile. “Leave it to me, captain.”

 

Left to herself she pulled out a flick knife and started to cut out her erstwhile husband. “So how was the POW camp?”

 

“Vee~ terrible!” North Italy popped out of the parcel unhurt by his cramped mode of transport. “The food was edible but everyone is so grouchy, even the women!” Feliciano followed up that potentially dangerous remark with a hug. “I missed you, so.”

 

Letizia allowed the embrace for a moment, letting her forehead rest against her husband’s, noticing how they had both lost weight under their uniforms. She closed her eyes and pretended she didn’t smell blood and mud, hear her people cry and pray and die. It would be so easy to surrender now, give up in the face of such over whelming forces. It had been fun, giving Austria just a piece of the suffering she had had to endure for centuries, but now it was over.

 

She opened her green specked eyes. Feliciano’s gold gaze met her squarely, open for once. She tried to read those eyes, often hidden from the world. As always, all she could see was her own feelings mirrored back at her. Perhaps a little less anger and bitterness, maybe a bit more optimism and faith. But the same tiredness and hurt and willingness to go on, come what may.

 

South Italy let her husband kiss her, just for a moment.

Their curls met together and formed a heart, just for a moment.

 

Then it was back to the war, back to surviving. “We need to go back to the North. General Diaz has got something big planned.” Letizia briskly got to her feet, pulling Feliciano up as well.

 

“How big?”

 

“War ending big.”

 

“Vee~, can we bring pasta?”

 

“If you can find some, yes.”

 

 

 

**August 1918, Berlin**

 

“So how was Italy?” asked Prussia at they walked from one emergency meeting to another. It was hard to tell who was in worse shape, Prussia and his injuries or Germany and her now stinging hunger pangs and dizziness.

 

“The land was very pretty.” Said Luise, not mentioning how her forces had left it looking.

 

“And the Nation?”

 

“Very… different from what I expected.”

 

“Yeah,” Gilbert pulled out a cigarette from one of his many pockets. “Feliciano’s defence mechanisms have always been a bit weird.” Putting the cigarette in his mouth, he struggled with a faulty lighter and one working arm.

 

Hesitantly, aware of his volatile pride, Luise took the lighter and managed to get a flickering flame. As Gilbert leaned forward to catch it, Luise risked a dangerous question. “Are we going to be alright?”

 

Gilbert leaned back inhaling the first breath of smoke. He seemed to be considering the question, weighing her with his one good eye. She resisted the urge to avoid his gaze, to back down from her question. She had pulled her weight in this war, had done more than anyone expected of her, she had a right to ask.

 

“Don’t know what you mean by alright.” Said Gilbert finally. “If you mean are we going to win, then no. If you mean are we at least going to lose with dignity, then no.”

 

Although she had already known the situation they were in, had seen it on reports and her people’s faces, had felt it every night in her aching stomach and pulsing heart, actually hearing it out loud from her husband hurt. Luise closed her eyes and fought down the tears that had been building up for days.

 

An arm wrapped around her waist and the smell of smoke grew stronger. The two Nations stood side by side, staring at the darkening sky as night drew in. The meeting they had been going to didn’t matter any more, they already knew every fact, every step their enemies were taking towards them.

 

“But,” said Gilbert, dropping the butt of his cigarette and grinding it with his boot. “If you mean are we going to recover from this and come back even stronger than we were. Then yes,” He gave her a familiar smirk. “We’re going to be alright.”

 

Luise let herself believe him, just for a while.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. The Battle of Caporetto was a complete mess for the Italians with Germany getting there fast and their general getting really sick just before the battle and other problems. Italian captures were really high.  
> 2\. The next year the Battle of Vittorio Veneto happened (The thing Letizia was talking about) where Italy kicked a major amount of ass and is considered instrumental in ending the war two weeks later. Also seen by some Italians as the final culmination of the Risorgimento nationalist movement, in which Italy was unified.


	9. Chapter 9

**10th of November, 1990**  
  
Rupert was not completely sure he should be in this meeting. As secretary to a high ranking, hospitalized official of West Berlin, he had orders to attend all meetings in his place and take notes for his superoer. However that had been a week ago, when everything was stable and the Berlin Wall had fewer gaps in it.  
  
In his seat at the back he could see West and East officials eyeing each other cautiously. Many had refused to attend this unofficial meeting of only German politicians, either because of a fear of what the rest of Europe would say or because a united Germany was not something they wished to see.  
  
And speaking of a Germany they wished to see, Rupert swept the room with his eyes, looking for a female figure. Lady Germany (not West Germany, because East Germany had never been officially acknowledged by those on the west side of the Iron Curtain, which made things even more awkward) was not here yet. In the three years he had been privy to her existence and true nature he had never known her to be late to a meeting.  
  
Of course he had been sceptical when told the existence of personified nations, and shocked when introduced to the female one of his own country. But with time he, like everybody else, had come to respect and admire her. Her conduct and her work ethic, made her easy to respect.  
  
“Please, please be seated.” Called a mediator, who had been employed to preside over this very delicate meeting. Two East German secretaries sat down to the right of Rupert, their clothing a little worn, but very neat.  
  
Just as the mediator was about to speak again, the door opened and Lady Germany appeared. The two East Germans stared, one realizing what she was and elbowing the other, who was giving her a very patriotic once over.  
  
Rupert did not blame him. Lady Germany looked different somehow, brighter and taller than she usually was. She was dressed in her usual dress suit, blond hair neatly pinned up and minimal decoration. Her face was different though, her lips redder, her eyes bigger. Maybe it was new make-up for such an important occasion? There was a smile on her face that looked like it wanted to become a full out grin.  
  
“Sorry we’re late.” She said and walked into the room towards two empty seats at the main table. Entering after her, holding her hand was a man in uniform. The uniform was in pristine condition, the man not so. He was by far the thinnest in the room, Rupert could see a scabbed cut running along the back of his head, among white hair.  
  
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the two East German secretaries exchanging money; apparently one had just lost a bet to the other. The rest of the East Germans in the room were either grinning, looking confused or cowering behind their meeting program. The West Germans were just confused.  
  
“Everyone.” Lady Germany addressed the room. “For those who do not know, I am the _Westdeutschland_.” She said, calling herself by her unofficial name for the first time to Rupert’s knowledge. “And this is my husband _Ostdeutschland_ , or” she smiled warmly at the seated man in question, “whatever title you prefer.”  
  
“Well…” the man in question smirked back at her. “I always liked the title _Preuβen_ best, personally.”  
  
Somewhere in the room an official choked. Another whimpered. Suddenly denying East Germany’s legitimacy seemed like a very bad idea.  
  
“Maybe,” said Lady Germany turning her head back to face her audience, her face stern. “You will treat him as you would me.”  
  
It was not the cooperation or bonding experience anyone had planed for, but for the first time in 43 years a meeting of East and West German officials united in a singular activity. Cowering at East’s smirk of self satisfaction.

 

 

Gilbert savoured the last bite of his meal, the first proper Hesse-Kassel meal he had eaten in half a century. He would have ordered more, but he knew his stomach was still not used to having a full meal. Across from the restaurant table Luise held a cold mug in her hands, having stared at it through out the meal.

  
Luise, who still called herself his wife, after so many years. That had been the most unexpected event of the last twenty-four hours. That Luise still considered them married. He had fully expected to be given a cold welcome at the wall, possibly some half-hearted co-operation before shoving him out to die or beg Russia for the job of Kaliningrad Oblast personification.

  
They had not parted on the best of terms. Gilbert smiled to himself, taking a cautious sip of his own cold coffee. There was an understatement. When the Allies had separated them, it had been more to keep them from ripping each other to shreds, than for punishment or revenge. The words they had flung at each other still echoed in Gilbert’s head sometimes, on cold Soviet nights when the rest of the Eastern Bloc huddled together, old hurts forgotten in the face of such emptiness.

  
But Luise had held him and kissed him, exactly the same way she had done a century ago when she was a goal he wanted to reach and he an escape route to her. She had led him home, away from the celebrations and confusions, to warm food and a warmer bed.

  
And even if this was all a terrible trick, even if the meal she just bought him was poisoned, nothing could take away the fact that last night he got to rest against Luise again, her curves and soft skin cushioning his scars and bones. Even if it had just been part of a great plot, the fact that she still wore both their crosses meant something.

  
Still, he was not about to get all sappy and let everything just slide out of control.  
“You don’t think maybe you were a little over the top in there?” Germany (and she was Germany really, not just West Germany) focused her eyes back into the present when he spoke. “You could have been a bit more subtle about the whole thing.”  
  
Luise sighed. “I’ve been subtle, Gilbert. For the past 40 years I haven’t put a foot wrong, raised my voice or done anything that could be perceived as a threat.” Her voice got more hesitant. “I haven’t paid off the war reparations from the first war, I’m still occupied by the Allies, and they are not happy about potential unification. I’ve had to fight them every step of the way in the NATO and America…” Luise pulled a face and waved a hand, conveying a complicated mix of positive and negative emotion. “He has supported me because Russia was the bigger threat. But I doubt he wants us together either.”  
  
“West, I don’t know if you noticed, but my side is a mess at the moment. Any chance at stability ended with the ‘53 strikes.” Gilbert did not reach up to his newest scar still healing at the back of his head. “I can’t help you when it comes to money or power.”  
And that hurt to admit. The mighty Prussia, with not a single solider to his name.  
  
Luise broke off the conversation then, waved down a waiter and settled their bill. Gilbert’s empty wallet was still at her house.  
  
They walked down the street, further away from the wall that still looked a bit threatening, even with all the spray paint and graffiti on it. She seemed to be taller than him, but maybe it was his worn out shoes, or her pinned up hair, or how her shoulders were as broad and strong as ever and Gilbert still had to remind himself not to curl in defensively.  
  
“You do have power, though.” Luise said finally, not looking at him “The Allies disbanded you.”  
  
“I know, killed by documents and words, I know.”

“You’re not listening. Even after two World Wars, even after everything done in my name, they disbanded you, not me.” Luise turned to face him. “At the back of their minds, even if they do not realize it, I’m just a child who was always very good at doing what she was told.” Luise face began to fall sadly at that. “And in a way they’re right. I never learnt the first lesson of being a great nation, of listening to all my people not just my boss.” A thousand words and six million six hundred deaths passed unspoken between them.

  
Gilbert could remember faintly, when he has so few people to his name, his first name, that he knew each and everyone by face and name and family. As he and they slowly grew bigger it was easy to feel and understand them all, even with many different points of view fighting in his head. He had taken the name Prussia from another nation along with the remainder of his people. And they became just as loud in his head as the Teutonic Prussians. He had never really grasped Luise’s problem until it was too late, until the deaths that Luise just could not feel or hear or see as anything but good started to deafen him with the screams and pleads and quiet prayers and the ohGodmakethemachinessilentmakethepainstopjustletmedie.  
  
He slowly put his arms around Luise as she shook from memories and guilt and anger that she would probably never be able to give way to. Who could she possibly blame but herself? He thought of Germania who had been given his name by Rome, because being a nation with a hundred different names was too complicated for a conqueror to grasp. He thought of Holy Rome, who used to shake like this during internal wars when every blow was a victory and defeat wrapped in disjointed pain. They had died of their own wounds those two, wounds given to them by their own people. And Luise had just carried on, growing weaker and wondering why until one gunshot had sent her into a screaming, raging ball of pain and betrayal, screaming at him, blaming him. That had been the first time he had ever struck her. To which she had retaliated in force, crippling words spewing between them.  
  
“I need to stand up for myself.” Luise whispered into his jacket, as her shaking slowly subsided. “But every time I try to do anything the Allies haven’t told me to do, every time they want me to do something I know is unfair or wrong, they just have to give me a look and I can’t say a word.”  
  
“I don’t exist anymore. I have no words to say.”  
  
“But you do exist!” Lusie pulled back to look him in the eyes. “To me you exist, will always exist as long as there’s a Germany. Remember I wanted to share kings with you and your king refused?” Gilbert tried to pull back, but she had a grip on his jacket and forced him to remain. “What if he had said yes then? What if I had married you right then, in 1848?”  
  
Gilbert could remember that day: a blue gown, a room of crates, a few half formed plans and a lot of desire that was abruptly interrupted and grew stronger and more consuming with every year and every failed attempt.  
  
“If I had married you as I was then, weak, disjointed and with no knowledge of war, how long would we have lasted? How long would I have lasted if you had said no to marriage outright and turned your back on me?” Luise’s eyes were as blue and deep as they ever had been.  
  
“If not for you, I would have never unified, never have been able to become one country with all the city states and princedoms in it. I would have lasted until the first war at most.” Here she broke off to glare into the distance. “I don’t care what France says, that one was not our fault.”  
  
Gilbert put a hand to her cheek, bringing her attention back to him. “I hear what you say, but just because I helped make you doesn’t mean I’m entitled to stay with you.”  
  
“I need someone the Allies are afraid of, I need someone who can stare America in the eye and tell him to piss off. I need someone to back me up when I try to do anything other than earn money! I need you.” Now her eyes were pleading. “The Allies disbanded you because they’re scared of you, because in their minds they can still see you on the battlefield, standing against and besides them as an equal.”  
  
She sighed, finally letting go of his jacket. “We would be better together than apart.”

“Luise.” Gilbert felt his age weigh heavily on him. So much war, then so many years of communism had left him tired. Whatever their governments and the Allies decided, it would be so easy to let go. Leave everything in Luise’s capable if uncertain hands and fade way.  
  
“History and Europe are against us.” His mouth curved in a real smile for the first time in years. “But that never stopped us before.” But then again, he had always loved a challenge. And just fading away, after everything: not awesome at all.  
  
Luise smiled back, her grown up concern and childish fears leaving her face. Around the world, important people argued over their fate, unaware that East Germany’s heart was speeding up and West Germany’s breathing relaxed into even breaths, matching each other in heartbeats and breaths as they kissed, harmonizing for a moment.  
  
Then they broke off and resumed their walk, arm in arm.  
  
“So, about this sex trade and porn business you’ve got going this side of Berlin...”  
  
“Shut up Husband.”  
  
  
**Epilogue**  
  
_On October 3, 1990, the German Democratic Republic was dissolved and five states were recreated and made a part of the Federal Republic of Germany._

  
After a lot of arguing Prussia (the German parliament took a vote, he could keep the name on the condition that he stopped gate crashing Russia’s internal meetings, claiming he was Kaliningrad and inciting officials to rebel) took control of those five states along with Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. (He refused Bavaria on the grounds that it had never been his, was annoyingly Bavarian and far too close to Austria.) This left Germany with eight states to Prussia’s seven. Berlin was shared between them, as it always had been, always would be. Not as an east and west but as a gorgon knot of new, old, yours, mine and ours.  
  
Sometimes Germany went to meetings with other Nations and was diplomatic and courteous and often fed up and angry by the end. Sometimes Prussia went to meetings with other Nations and was pragmatic and cautious and often made others angry and fed up. And sometimes they went to meetings together and were completely awesome. And most of the time, they were happy.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look look I finished! Now for all the other fics that sit listlessly waiting fr my attention.


End file.
